Webber practices, but still not available

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, March 13, 2008

Chris Webberwon't be an option when the Warriors face Shaquille O'Nealand the Suns tonight. Though Webber rejoined his teammates for Wednesday morning's shootaround, there still is no return date in sight for him.

"Right now, we got to make sure the knee is sound and the swelling is down," coach Don Nelsonsaid. "Then he's got to get back in some shape. I don't know how much he can do at this point."

Webber will remain inactive as he gets in shape and strengthens his surgically repaired left knee.

The 35-year-old played in nine games - averaging 3.9 points, 3.6 rebounds and two assists in 14 minutes - before his comeback with the Warriors stalled earlier this month.

Webber will miss his sixth straight game tonight, making it difficult to project what role, if any, he will have in the Warriors' playoff push.

"You would hope he wouldn't have had this problem, that he could consistently play a little bit each game and we could evaluate him from there," Nelson said. "But it is what it is, and we'll have to work our way through it."

"He needed practice time. He needed work. He wasn't in bad shape, but you can always improve on that," Nelson added about Webber's step back in conditioning. "We weren't going to overuse him in games anyway, but I was thinking somewhere around 14, 15 minutes or so. And he was able to do that."

Briefly: Nelson, whose option for next season was exercised by the Warriors on Tuesday, said that catching Lenny Wilkens, the NBA's all-time leader in coaching wins (1,332), will not be a factor in his decision to return.

"I'd rather not have that record," said Nelson, who has 1,272 wins. "I think Lenny deserves it. I wish he could keep it."